Field of the Invention
The invention relates to variants of albumin or fragments thereof or fusion polypeptides comprising variant albumin or fragments thereof having a change in binding affinity to FcRn and/or a change in half-life compared to the albumin, fragment thereof or fusion polypeptide comprising albumin or a fragment thereof. The invention allows tailoring of binding affinity and/or half-life of an albumin to the requirements and desires of a user or application.
Description of the Related Art
Albumin is a protein naturally found in the blood plasma of mammals where it is the most abundant protein. It has important roles in maintaining the desired osmotic pressure of the blood and also in transport of various substances in the blood stream. Albumins have been characterized from many species including human, pig, mouse, rat, rabbit and goat and they share a high degree of sequence and structural homology.
Albumin binds in vivo to its receptor, the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) “Brambell” and this interaction is known to be important for the plasma half-life of albumin. FcRn is a membrane bound protein, expressed in many cell and tissue types. FcRn has been found to salvage albumin from intracellular degradation (Roopenian D. C. and Akilesh, S. (2007), Nat. Rev. Immunol 7, 715-725.). FcRn is a bifunctional molecule that contributes to maintaining a high level of IgGs and albumin in serum in mammals such as human beings.
Whilst the FcRn-immunoglobulin (IgG) interaction has been characterized in the prior art, the FcRn-albumin interaction is less well characterized. The major FcRn binding site is localized within DIII (381-585), (Andersen et al (2010), Clinical Biochemistry 43, 367-372). A number of key amino acids have been shown to be important in binding, notably histidines H464, H510 and H536 and Lys500 (Andersen et al (2010), Nat. Commun. 3:610. DOI:10.1038/ncomms1607). Data indicates that IgG and albumin bind non-cooperatively to distinct sites on FcRn (Andersen et al. (2006), Eur. J. Immunol 36, 3044-3051; Chaudhury et al. (2006), Biochemistry 45, 4983-4990.).
It is known that mouse FcRn binds IgG from mice and humans whereas human FcRn appears to be more discriminating (Ober et al. (2001) Int. Immunol 13, 1551-1559). Andersen et al. (2010) Journal of Biological Chemistry 285(7):4826-36, describes the affinity of human and mouse FcRn for each mouse and human albumin (all possible combinations). No binding of albumin from either species was observed at physiological pH to either receptor. At acidic pH, a 100-fold difference in binding affinity was observed. In all cases, binding of albumin and IgG from either species to both receptors were additive.
Human serum albumin (HSA) has been well characterized as a polypeptide of 585 amino acids, the sequence of which can be found in Peters, T., Jr. (1996) All about Albumin: Biochemistry, Genetics and Medical, Applications pp 10, Academic Press, Inc., Orlando (ISBN 0-12-552110-3). It has a characteristic binding to its receptor FcRn, where it binds at pH 6.0 but not at pH 7.4.
The plasma half-life of HSA has been found to be approximately 19 days. A natural variant having lower plasma half-life has been identified (Peach, R. J. and Brennan, S. 0., (1991) Biochim Biophys Acta. 1097:49-54) having the substitution D494N. This substitution generated an N-glycosylation site in this variant, which is not present in the wild-type albumin. It is not known whether the glycosylation or the amino acid change is responsible for the change in plasma half-life.
Albumin has a long plasma half-life and because of this property it has been suggested for use in drug delivery. Albumin has been conjugated to pharmaceutically beneficial compounds (WO2000/69902), and it was found that the conjugate maintained the long plasma half-life of albumin. The resulting plasma half-life of the conjugate was generally considerably longer than the plasma half-life of the beneficial therapeutic compound alone.
Further, albumin has been genetically fused to therapeutically beneficial peptides (WO 2001/79271 A and WO2003/59934) with the typical result that the fusion has the activity of the therapeutically beneficial peptide and a considerably longer plasma half-life than the plasma half-life of the therapeutically beneficial peptides alone.
Otagiri et al (2009), Biol. Pharm. Bull. 32(4), 527-534, discloses more than 70 albumin variants, of these 25 of these are found to be mutated in domain III. A natural variant lacking the last 175 amino acids at the carboxy termini has been shown to have reduced half-life (Andersen et al (2010), Clinical Biochemistry 43, 367-372). Iwao et al (2007) studied the half-life of naturally occurring human albumin variants using a mouse model, and found that K541E and K560E had reduced half-life, E501K and E570K had increased half-life and K573E had almost no effect on half-life (Iwao, et. al. (2007) B.B.A. Proteins and Proteomics 1774, 1582-1590). Galliano et al (1993) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1225, 27-32 discloses a natural variant E505K. Minchiotti et al (1990) discloses a natural variant K536E. Minchiotti et al (1987) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 916, 411-418, discloses a natural variant K574N. Takahashi et al (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 4413-4417, discloses a natural variant D550G. Carlson et al (1992). Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 8225-8229, discloses a natural variant D550A.
WO2011/051489 and WO 2012/150319 (PCT/EP2012/058206) disclose a number of point mutations in albumin which modulate the binding of albumin to FcRn, WO2010/092135 discloses a number of point mutations in albumin which increase the number of thiols available for conjugation in the albumin, the disclosure is silent about the effect of the mutations on the binding of the albumin to FcRn. WO2011/103076 discloses albumin variants, each containing a substitution in Domain III of HSA. WO2012/112188 discloses albumin variants containing substitutions in Domain III of HSA.
Albumin has the ability to bind a number of ligands and these become associated (associates) with albumin. This property has been utilized to extend the plasma half-life of drugs having the ability to non-covalently bind to albumin. This can also be achieved by binding a pharmaceutical beneficial compound, which has little or no albumin binding properties, to a moiety having albumin binding properties, see review article and reference therein, Kratz (2008) Journal of Controlled Release 132, 171-183.
Albumin is used in preparations of pharmaceutically beneficial compounds, in which such a preparation maybe for example, but not limited to, a nanoparticle or microparticle of albumin. In these examples the delivery of a pharmaceutically beneficial compound or mixture of compounds may benefit from alteration in the albumin's affinity to its receptor where the beneficial compound has been shown to associate with albumin for the means of delivery. It is not clear what determines the plasma half-life of the formed associates (for example but not limited to Levemir®, Kurtzhals P et al. Biochem. J. 1995; 312:725-731), conjugates or fusion polypeptides but it appears to be a result of the combination of the albumin and the selected pharmaceutically beneficial compound/polypeptide. It would be desirable to be able to control the plasma half-life of given albumin conjugates, associates or albumin fusion polypeptides so that a longer or shorter plasma half-life can be achieved than given by the components of the association, conjugation or fusion, in order to be able to design a particular drug according to the particulars of the indication intended to be treated.
Albumin is known to accumulate and be catabolized in tumors; it has also been shown to accumulate in inflamed joints of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. See review article and reference therein, Kratz (2008) Journal of Controlled Release 132, 171-183. It is envisaged that HSA variants with increased affinity for FcRn would be advantageous for the delivery of pharmaceutically beneficial compounds.
It may even be desirable to have variants of albumin that have little or no binding to FcRn in order to provide shorter half-lives or controlled serum pharmacokinetics as described by Kenanova et al (2009) J. Nucl. Med.; 50 (Supplement 2):1582).
Kenanova et al (2010, Protein Engineering, Design & Selection 23(10): 789-798; WO2010/118169) discloses a docking model comprising a structural model of domain III of HSA (solved at pH 7 to 8) and a structural model of FcRn (solved at pH 6.4). Kenanova et al discloses that positions 464, 505, 510, 531 and 535 in domain III potentially interact with FcRn. The histidines at positions 464, 510 and 535 were identified as being of particular interest by Chaudhury et al., (2006, op. cit.) and these were shown to have a significant reduction in affinity and shorter half-life in mouse by Kenanova (2010, op. cit.). However, the studies of Kenanova et al are limited to domain III of HSA and therefore do not consider HSA in its native intact configuration. Furthermore, the identified positions result in a decrease in affinity for the FcRn receptor.
The present invention provides further variants having modulated (i.e. altered) binding affinity to the FcRn receptor. The albumin moiety or moieties may therefore be used to tailor the binding affinity to FcRn and/or half-life of fusion polypeptides, conjugates, associates, nanoparticles and compositions comprising the albumin moiety.